Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Chiang Mai, Thailand. Old City Walking Tour

King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai
(meaning "new city") in 1296 on the location of an older city of the
Lawa people called Wiang Nopburi. Chiang Mai succeeded Chiang Rai as the
capital of the Lanna kingdom. The ruler was known as the Chao. The city
was surrounded by a moat and a defensive wall, since nearby Burma was a
constant threat as well as the armies of the Mongol Empire which only
decades earlier had conquered most of Yunnan, China, and in 1292 overran
the bordering Thai Lü kingdom of Chiang Hung. With the decline of the
Lanna Kingdom, the city lost importance and was occupied by the Burmese
in 1556. Chiang Mai formally became part of Siam in 1775 by an agreement
with Chao Kavila, after the Thai King Taksin helped drive out the
Burmese. Because of the Burmese counterattacks, Chiang Mai was abandoned
between 1776 and 1791. Lampang then served as the capital of what
remained of Lanna. Chiang Mai then slowly grew in cultural, trading and
economic importance to its current status as the unofficial capital of
northern Thailand, second in importance only to Bangkok.

Offline version of this walk for your iPhone you can get via PinMyWAY app.

PinMyWAY App

The walking tour planner for your iPhone.

This application is a fully functional tool to create your own routes with an option to publish them in open access.
It also provides ready-made self-guided independent walking tours throughout individual cities of the world.